Customer Reviews

Feasting on the Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, History's Most Corrupt Congressman

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Our country is in trouble. Big trouble. The amount of greed and corruption that is being allowed to run amuck these past seven years is staggering. With all of the terror mongering going on, many will turn the other way not wanting any more bad news. Do not make that mistake.

Hettena has masterfully taken a complex, convoluted and just plain confusing history and woven a fascinating and comprehensible story which helps us understand not only what happened in the case of Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his contractor cronies, Wade and Wilkes, but skillfully illuminates the reasons why.

Perhaps some of you will say they're unethical - so what? The amount of corruption and the web of complicity throughout our government and industry have reached record breadth and depth. It will not improve until the American public pays attention, understands, and demands that it be stopped. Each of us has a part in this drama. A good place to start is reading this book.

Great work Seth Hettena! I really enjoyed reading this book. I lived in San Diego during the "Duke" era and was shocked when all of this corruption scandal unfolded. Seth did a great job in describing the events of this crime. He also paints a very different picture of the "Duke" we all knew. The great Vietnam fighter ace was able to defeat his enemy, but was not able to fight off his own addiction to fame, money and status.

It was very clear to me after reading this book how our culture of materialism and consumerism has gotten out of control. The "Duke" got caught up in this and loses site of what is important in life and his purpose as a father, husband and congressional representative. Seth paints a very clear picture of a man caught up in his own ego unable to distinguish right from wrong. This book reminded me about the frailty of human beings and the necessity to show how bad it can get when we lose site of our purpose. This timely book should not only be a must read for every politician....but everyone.

A fascinating story that was extremely well told. The book chronicles Cunningham's life and demonstrates how and why he became so corrupt. While the political corruption aspect was interesting, I thought the best parts were the chapters about Cunningham's life before Congress. In retrospect, given Cunningham's obvious limitations, one has to ask oneself how it was possible that he ever got elected (let alone by overwhelming margins). This was a man of extremely limited intelligence who spent his entire life trading on the fame he earned as the first ace of the Vietnam war.

The other fascinating part of the book is that it shows just how easy it is for a member of Congress to be corrupted. After reading it, we should look long and hard at practices such as "legislative earmarks" and gerrymandered political districts, both of which played a strong part in Cunningham's saga. A gerrymandered district ensured that he would always be re-elected (despite the observation by the local, conservative, paper that he was an embarrassment to the voters), while the "earmark" process allowed him to payback his benefactors by inserting hidden contracts into spending bills. If we are ever going to have a semblance of true democracy, both of these practices must stop. This book demonstrates how and why both of these practices have such a deleterious effect on our government. It's a great story that was exceedingly well told.

"Spoils" paints not only an amazing story of corruption but a fascinating character study in how the sense of entitlement and greed can take over the human spirit. You really can't make this "cast of characters " up and the story reads like an unbelievable true-crime novel.

The other scary part is, Duke and his "friends" really didn't try to hide any of their corrupt actions and it went unchecked for years. It makes you think what our "smart" politicians are doing to keep their secrets from coming out?

Seth has written what I thought was a balanced and accurate account of events in the Cunningham corruption case. His commendable reporting is in dramatic contrast to "The Wrong Stuff". Speaking only to my direct experience, I was shocked and appalled at the fabricated "facts" contained in the fictionalizations perpetrated by "The Wrong Stuff". Thank you Mr. Hettena for not succumbing to creatively sleaze up an already scandalous situation and for sticking to relating the real story of this compelling non-fiction tragedy.

How can a man ruin his life and that of so many others in our age of higher enlightenmen? This book reveals the dark side of an elected congressman. It's a sad, true story about a man who didn't know how to grow and mature, yet we sent to congress. Makes the reader ask what else did this man do?

This is a very well-written book. It's an alarming case study not just of greed, but of 'vaulting ambition' run amok. After reading it, I believe that Cunningham was: (a) genuinely patriotic, but (b) a deeply insecure bully, and (c) hugely incompetent. He is not a sympathetic character, yet author Seth Hettena provides an entertaining story; like a car crash from which one can't turn away, I was glued to the narrative, eager to see what bad move the characters would do next. It's also an 'easy read' -- good for airplane reading or a rainy weekend.

The author, in a very vivid language, tells us a lot about what is happening in Washington.
I wish every American could read this book to realize what really is happening to our tax dollars because of all the political corruption that exists.

After the Bush years are over and those Congressmen and lobbyists who have benefited from their party's patronage go to jail, (1994 was the real year of inception with the GOP takeover of Congress) it will be interesting to see who is left standing. Certainly not among them is Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the pride of the air war in Vietnam. Pin a medal to his chest and watch his life unfold.

Duke Cunningham should never have gotten even remotely high up in power as he did. Author Seth Hettena paints a "not so glorious" view of the man who came to represent the beginning of the downfall of ethics problems in Congress over the past years. Cunningham was neither cunning so much as he was a ham. His mouth got him into constant trouble and the author points out how easily a man with war hero credentials, given to emotion rather than reason and easily bought, is otherwise reduced to pulp on a national scene. At least retiring Senator Larry Craig makes Cunningham look good.

Hettena's narrative is better at the ends. The initial sting operation to get Cunningham bookended by the eventual outcome is told in gripping manner. The author knows how to write. Yet, the middle of the book sags under the weight of facts and figures. The case against Cunningham is made, but to say that he is the "most corrupt Congressman" in Washington? Ever? Certainly Tom DeLay will receive that mantle. Or others about whom we don't know. It's still early.

Seth Hettena's book is good, but not great. It fills in some pieces along the corruption puzzle line and a title less blaring would have made for a more solid read. I hope this talented author writes another book about Congressional life in Washington before long. Go higher up, this time!